Why?

I had someone at work today ask me why I bike instead of any other way of getting around. I told them it was free, fun, for the exercise, blah blah. Everything I've answered to that question before. But it made me think a bit. I remembered the first time I rode a bike since I got my driver's licence. It was this summer, actually.
I moved to Boston with no car, no way of transportation but my then girlfriend. I was working in Boston with a 30 mile commute between work and home. I spent most of the summer getting picked up, driven to the train station, then the reverse to get home. I wasn't nuts about the routine, as you can imagine. I eventually found an old beat up Peugeot bike for sale, cheap. I bought it and took it to a bike shop to have them turn it into a fixed gear, cuz my brother was building one and I thought they were cool as shit. I picked it up a few days later and rode to the train station in Boston. Not really a magical experience, I was mainly focused on not killing myself. It wasn't until my ride home that I felt it. The...something. I can't put words too it, but if you have felt it then you know. That's the best I can do.
I was riding, alone, one a two lane rural road in Massachusetts. Just me and a bike. I felt completely free, able to do anything I wanted. I realized I could go anywhere I wanted, not needing anything but food. I wasn't shackled by gas, or fear of breaking down, or anything. It was the best thing I have felt in a long time.
Take the exhilaration you felt when you kissed her the first time, the wind you felt the first time you stood in the front of the boat, the freedom you felt when you picked up your car keys the first time, and the confidence you had when you realized that you didn't need to be surrounded by anything, that you could support yourself. Put it all together in a single rush, and that's the closest I can describe.
I ride for that. I still feel it, everytime I put feet in clips and take off. Not for any of the other thousand reasons to bike over anything else, but just that one.
That's why.

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